


who's this man that's holding your hand

by reinacadeea



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M, amnesia!fic, amnesia!rob is crushing, our shipper queen, prompt, victoria the detective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 11:50:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4959562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reinacadeea/pseuds/reinacadeea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in a not-very-distant future, robert wakes up with amnesia and like the good sister she is, victoria tries to help him remember.</p>
<p>taken from bisexualsugden's tumblr page</p>
            </blockquote>





	who's this man that's holding your hand

**Author's Note:**

> in my defense i didn't take it. she did a shoutout for fic writers. i do my duty

The strangest thing isn’t Robert remembering absolutely nothing of why he’s stuck in hospital in Hotten. 

“I think Chile,” he answers when they ask where he remembers being last. 

Victoria can’t remember him telling her anything about Chile so about nine years he’s lost in memories is a good bet. 

The strangest thing is watching him having a crush. 

He’s just like she remembers him, mean, selfish, too big for her small world. He still loves too much, her especially and he’s got little love for Diane, which is odd. Apparently, years had healed away the anger he’s felt for her. 

That mostly leaves her to listen to his insistent moaning. 

“Are you mental?” Aaron says. 

“He doesn’t want to see Diane, Andy’s out of the question and Chrissie… well, you can see why she wouldn’t, dun’t you?”

“And natural you go to me next? Are you mental?”

“He doesn’t remember nuthin’, like at all,” she says exasperated. “He’s just sat in that bed all day long, being bored. Who knows what’s going on his head? It’s better if he sees something he can relate to, so he can start to remember.”

“I’m not doing it,” he says. 

It all comes back to the crush. It’s been obvious to her since she found out about the affair that there’s love there. It’s hidden, right, but still there. Because she knows her brother and he doesn’t do things half-way. 

Aaron wanders in behind her, shoulders hunched and hands in his pockets. 

Robert looks up and she sees him see Aaron and it’s interesting that look on his face. She’s never seen it before. 

“This is Aaron,” she says pointedly. “He runs a scrapyard that you gave him the money for. He’s a mate, ya know, Chas Dingle’s son.”

“You’ve grown up,” Robert says cheekily. 

Aaron scoffs. 

“He’s going to talk to you a bit, try to jock your memory,” Victoria says. 

It’s awkward and stilted and Aaron doesn’t really try and Robert can tell he doesn’t want to be there. But he wants Aaron to stay. His eyes track Aaron’s movements and his eyes even crinkle when Aaron says something sarcastic. 

“What’s his business anyway?” he asks when Aaron’s gone. 

“I think you have a crush, Rob,” she says with a smirk. 

He looks caught for a moment. “I’m not gay.”

She rolls her eyes. “It’s sort of obvious, though.”

Robert has a lot of secrets and his phone has a fortress of passwords and maps in maps that hides things. It took her ages to guess the password and when she finally did she had to find where he’s hidden his secret life with Aaron. Because she knows he cares and he must have documented something. 

“So, this is your phone, right,” she tells him and hands it to him. 

He scrunches his eyes in confusion and watches the folder of pictures she took ages to find. They are all of Aaron, bed-hair and crinkly happy eyes, and it’s obvious he’s at least partly naked. “I took those?” Robert asks. 

“It’s your phone, Rob,” she says softly. “As I said, you have a crush.”

He rubs his eyes and she doesn’t press him for further information. 

When she visits him the next day, he’s quiet and withdrawn and pleads a headache to be left alone. She does. Whatever sexuality crisis he’s had, he’s having it again. She doesn’t need to push it. 

But she can’t give up and she shows up the next couple of days until one day she finds him watching a video. She can hear Adam laughing in the background, probably filming, and Aaron’s voice filters clearly into the room. He’s hypnotised, staring transfixed  
on a moment in time he wasn’t in. She wanders if he wants it to be him holding the camera instead of Adam, filming a random moment where Aaron’s carefree and happy. 

She pulls up a chair silently and sits down beside him, letting him have his moment. 

“Vic?” he finally asks.

“Hmm?”

“Tell me about him.”

She does.

Aaron’s sitting at the bar when she comes from hospital. He looks up at her and then quickly looks away. Interested, but not really wanting to appear interested. 

“I had a chat with Rob’s doctor,” she says, marching straight up to him. “I said, Robert’s not responding positively to anyone.”

“Not this again,” Aaron says gruffly and gets up from his stool. 

“Stop it, Aaron,” she shouts and several heads turn in the pub. “He’s had one tiny little look at you, right, and he’s not stopped talking about you since. He fancies the pants off of ya and you don’t even care!”

“For a good reason, Victoria,” he says angrily.

“You can’t hold something against him he can’t remember he’s done.”

“Try me!” he shouts at her and angrily shoulders his way past Ross. 

“What’s up his duff?” Ross says annoyed. 

Victoria rolls her eyes at him and goes to take over from Marlon in the kitchen. 

She feels frustrated because she knows Aaron can help Robert, but apparently there is something Aaron isn’t telling her. It’s frustrating talking to someone who cares but doesn’t want to care. Aaron always cares. She wishes their relationship hadn’t played under the radar for months on end. She wishes she could have seen a fraction of their friendship at least, or well, companionship more like. Robert must have been good to Aaron at some point – why else would Aaron have loved him?

Robert’s things are stacked in Betty’s old room, still unpacked and waiting for a move that’s never going to happen. She tries to sleep that night, but she itches. It’s like she’s missing some obvious sign, so she goes to look through the boxes. 

It feels weird going through things that aren’t hers, like he’s dead or something. 

It takes her about half an hour before she finds a parcel, gift-wrapped and all. She pulls it up from underneath too many ugly shirts to count. It’s nondescript, wrapped in simple brown paper with the words ‘for Aaron’ written in Robert’s loopy handwriting. She opens it carefully and finds a magazine called Auto-News. It’s sub-title is for something called Nitro Circus and their announcement of their UK tour. 

And there are too tickets, purchased a week before the helicopter crash for a show. Dated before Chrissie stormed into the pub yelling at Aaron. 

“What are you doing, babe?” Adam asks, making her jump in surprise. He sounds tired and looks it too. 

“Look at these,” she says and hands him the tickets. 

“Sick,” he says, sounding excited. “Aaron wanted to go. Made me watch some videos and stuff. Good stuff and right up his alley.”

“Rob bought them for him,” she states. 

“You’re joking?” he says. “He wanted to take Aaron there? That’s sort of… considerate, innit?”

“Considerate, Adam! It’s sweet and thoughtful. It’s what you do for someone you really fancy.”

She tells Robert the exact same thing the next time she sees him. 

He hunches his shoulders and averts his eyes. “Stop it. It’s embarrassing.”

“No, you stop it! It’s not embarrassing. Just admit it, you have a really big crush on him! You like his dreamy eyes and skin and his sarcasm. You want to do the sex.”

He looks at her horrified. 

“I’m sorry,” she says shocked she even said that. “But you do, dun’t ya? Just like him?”

“Don’t,” he says, closing his eyes. “I’ve barely met him.”

She takes his hand, stroking it softly until he looks at her again. “There is something inside you that is telling you something different, isn’t there? Like you recognise him?”

“You’re mad.”

“Am I though, really?”

They stare at each other for a while. He starts to crumble then. 

“Yeah,” he says and she hugs him. “I think I’m in love.”

 

End 8-10-15

**Author's Note:**

> i'm reinacadeea on tumblr as well. come say hello and have a fic chat or just a general one


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